Help!! Work experience....again....

[Im88]

Hi, I've just joined this forum and was wondering if someone would be able to help me with a couple of questions regarding work experience?

I have applied to 4 uni's for med and fortunately (or unfortunately I guess depending on which way you look at it!!) have been offered an interview for Gep at St Georges. This in itself has sown some doubts in my mind as to whether I have a decent chance as Kings and UEA have rejected me and have been offered an interview at PMS for dentistry as I just missed the GAMSAT cutoff for medicine.

I currently work for the NHS in clinical trials, which involves being the first point of contact for patients and meeting them sometimes before their surgery (of which I have been able to observe)and have done this job for a year. I also have worked in clinical governance for a mental health trust, which again involved improving patient care and did involve some time on the wards talking to patients quite a lot.This I did for 3 years.

For 2 years I have spent time helping to care (shop for, talk to, prepare meals and take for walks) for an elderly man who has mental health difficulties and is sight and hearing impaired, though this has only been once a week. I also have taught literacy and numeracy to children who have been refugees twice a month for 2 years though I stopped this a year ago.

My biggest concern is that St georges emphasize work experience and although I feel like I have had a lot and spent a lot of time in a clinical environment I read someones comment about not having enough 'caring' experience, and was wondering if the experience I have is sufficient. I have tried getting work as a health care assistant (which was surprisingly difficult) and have managed to register with a temp agency but don't know if it would be worth doing a few shifts if I can now...though isprobably way too late in the day.

I am just worried because I have obviously been rejected from 2 universities based on my ps and could it be from insufficient work experience?

Sorry that was a bit of a ramble...but any advice would be appreciated

[nicnac84]

Personally I think your work experience sounds very relevant and interesting. However, its what you make of it. Its not just what you've done; its the skills and knowledge you have learned which are applicable to a medical career.

I think the main reason people seem to value care experience (rather than just general clinical experience) is that it shows the real nasty realities of healthcare... eg the smelly bodily fluids, witnessing the suffering, the physical demands of the working conditions, the patience and communication skills required. Also if you've done this kind of work for a long time I think it shows you're a compassionate person (trust me I wouldn't do my job for the money I get if I didn't really care about the patients).

I'm sure you've learned about a lot of these above aspects in your own work experience. You now have to have to be able to get this across to your interviewers. Just because you don't have the seemingly obligatory HCA experience (which is actually quite difficult to get in the NHS often) doesn't mean your experiences haven't been as valuble. You could have been rejected from the other unis for any number of reasons, sometimes its just bad luck... med courses are just over subscribed (as we all know).

Good luck with your interview, just remember you know why you want to do medicine, all you have to do now is tell the scarey people at St George's!!!!

[Dr Noodle]

You've had quite a bit of experience with patients it seems...now what about seeing what it's actually like as a doctor? Have you shadowed any?

[Molsey]

work experience is a a strange one. although the medical schools are trying to ease the selection procedure with UKCAT and so on, this area can only ever be considered by the admissions tutors and thus is inherently open to debate and is highly subjective. Some people prefer 'caring' positions, some want to see how you express what you learned from almost any type of experience, and some state outright that you must have x months of HCA work (like Bristol GEP - which is just pathetic). Most places will want to see that the experience you have done has given you a well-informed choice of what it means to be a doctor in the NHS today. I've always found students that trumpet on with long medical procedure names they've observed are ridiculous. You're experience is brilliant, but thats irrelevant. Its all about how you talk about it, right down to how exciting and enthralling a writer you are - so practice this to grab and maintain attention of very bored admissions tutors.

At the end of the day though, i personally think its all a lottery !!!

[hopeforever]

Your work experience sounds good. Probably better than mine! You should be fine. I would say stop worrying but i am in the same position and am panicking.